Saturday, October 18, 2008

The Kings signed defenseman Matt Greeene to a 5-year deal worth about $2.95 million dollars, ensuring that they'll always be able to balance out all their good puck-moving defensemen with a guy that couldn't handle the puck if you taped it to his stick. This is a weird deal. I've liked what I've seen from Matt Greene so far and he could very well be worth this kind of contract, but why give it to him now? Why not wait until the end of the season and see how Greene holds up? Apparently if Patrick O'Sullivan wanted a big deal from the Kings he should have gotten hurt for most of last season.

The Kings are hoping Matt Greene will eventually become just like Sean O'Donnell was on the Ducks, a solid defensive defenseman that can skate on a primary shutdown line with Jack Johnson while also chipping in 3+ minutes on the penalty kill. The name thrown around for Greene when he was with the Oiler was Jason Smith and that doesn't seem that unreasonable. Still, Greene is a long way away from proving he's actually capable of that. I mean, he's capable of that on a poor defensive team like the Kings, but is he capable of that on a playoff team? Maybe, but nobody knows yet. Now, we have seen that the market for defensemen that don't fuck up is pretty lucrative, so if Greene pans out then the Kings are going to make out okay. But that's the problem; at best, the Kings make out okay. There's no possibility that this deal is going to work out great. It's either just okay or terrible. It's a pretty big risk to take.

***

Michal Handzus, hockey god? The oft-mocked and ridiculed center has been making all the assholes (read: me) that made fun of him last season look like idiots. It's only 4 games but Handzus looks like an honest to God bad ass out there. He had a great chip-in goal while driving to the net (something I dont' think happened last season) and made a beautiful dangle and shot to win the game last night in overtime. The Frolov-Handzus-Simmonds line actually managed to win the battle with Eric Staal's line and Frolov didn't even create a goal. I've made my fun of Handzus in the past (he looks like Matt Stone from South Park... dammit, did it again!) but if he can play like this all season then the Kings are looking in good shape.

Wayne Simmonds also looked great last night, as he was basically the only Kings' player that could get the puck deep into Carolina's zone. He also set up the first goal of the game with his physical play. I imagine that's not the last time we'll see that.

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Jarret Stoll's line looked like shit last night, especially when the Kings moved Patrick O'Sullivan (who was awesome again) up to Kopitar's wing and moved Matt Moulson down. I still think the Kings need Ted Purcell back up to help create offensive chances for that line, otherwise teams are just going to key in on Kopitar. A Moulson-Stoll-Purcell line isn't that bad and could serve as a secondary scoring or stopping line.

I hope the Greene deal works out. With his five-year contract, Doughty, and the extension DL is likely to sign Johnson to, that leaves only three spots on defense for the young guys. That means guys like Hickey, Teubert, and Campbell are gonna have to work extra hard to get spots down the line.

On the other hand, that means that our defense is set for the next several years. The key to a good team is stability, especially on defense.

Yeah it might be good to see how he fits, but its not like the scouts haven't watched him a lot already. Everyone assumed Greene was a throw in on the deal, but there is a good chance Stoll was the throw in (or at least he was as important to the deal). He seems like exactly the type of D-man (or like you said, hope he becomes the type of D-man) that Lombardi craves. Also, everyone elses GM was giving away 5-8 year deals like they were hotcakes on July 1st (Finger, Commadore, even Campbell), and that was with those guys playing 0 games for their new teams, so its not that out of line.

Although I'm a Rangers fan, I feel this vicarious attachment to the Kings thanks to reading Rudy's hilarious posts.

He's got me nearly wetting myself on a daily basis which is just about on par with the happiest time of my life, the third grade.

Anyway, lame jokes aside, I went to a bar after the Rangers-Leafs game and the place had Center Ice. Score. Canes-Kings on the tube and Sam Cherry Wheat in hand I leaned back and thoroughly enjoyed my first Kings game of the year.

So great game, great comeback and all that good stuff. One person who caught my attention was Wayne Simmonds. Not only for the fact that he played a solid game, but Rudy's been talking him up for weeks now and I knew nothing about him.

Maybe I missed a post somewhere, but, Wayne Simmonds is black?! "A black Sheriff?!!?" "Well, it worked in Blazin' Saddles"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdEgHcDw2V0

Awesome. Lots of brothers in hockey this year I had no idea about. There's a kid by the name of Ward on Columbus too. Good stuff..